Fjord Norway Biking Cluster Road Trip

by | 7 Feb, 2017

NCE Tourism Fjord Norway’s goal is to create a world class biking destination, in part as a legacy of the UCI Road Cycling World Championships in Bergen 16th– 24th September 2017.

Over-view of the development process

I was hired as the development advisor for the project and our aim from the beginning has been to:

  • Reach out to world-class cycling and biking tour operators to ensure we build in their vision and requirements at the front end of the process.
  • Support the cluster members through the development of ‘market driven’ experiences.
  • Provide on-going mentoring support.
  • Liaise with the overseas tour operators, brand partners, NCE and Fjord Norway to develop sales channels, marketing and promotional support.

 

Segment Focus for both guided small groups and self-guided itinerary development:

  • Road cycling
  • Leisure cycling
  • Mountain biking, split between single track and alpine sub-segments

 

On-going process

At the beginning of 2017 contact was made with a range of international cycling and biking tour operators, followed up with one-on-one calls for those tour operators who were interested in developing programmes to the Fjord Norway region. The calls established the key vision, requirement and on-site support required by the overseas tour operators.

The next stage required me undertaking a road trip to selected Fjord Norway bike cluster members to learn more about their services and destinations in order to try and match them with interested tour operators. As part of the road trip I needed to assess the service and product chains as well as identify potential bottlenecks or gaps in operations as well as with hard and soft infrastructure within the destination.

The road trip took place between the 30th January and 03 June when I visited Bergen, Matre/Stordalen, Sogndal/Sognefjord, Skjolden/Lusterfjord, Romsdal and Oppdal.

Next Steps:

  • Matching overseas tour operators with bike cluster members and arrange spring and autumn FAM trips so the overseas tour operators can ride and assess proposed itineraries first hand.
  • Bring Fjord Norway, brand partners, local destinations, events and cluster members together to promote Fjord Norway as a new, exciting and world-class cycling and biking destination.

 

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